Apparatus for manufacturing packaging units

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing packaging units in a tubular bag forming, filling and sealing machine, having a horizontal conveyor installation for transferring separated products ( 14 ) to a portioning appliance ( 15 ) for manufacturing portion units ( 12 ) with a defined arrangement and number of products, and having a vertical conveyor installation ( 22 ) for conveying the portion units, which are enveloped by a film web ( 11 ), to a separating appliance for separating the packaging units, wherein the vertical conveyor installation has two parallel strap conveyors ( 34, 35 ), each having a multiplicity of support appliances arranged in the conveying direction ( 17 ) for supporting the conveying straps along the conveying channel.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing packaging units in a tubular bag forming, filling and sealing machine, having a horizontal conveyor installation for transferring separated products to a portioning appliance for manufacturing portion units with a defined arrangement and number of products, and having a vertical conveyor installation for conveying the portion units, which are enveloped by a film web, to a separating appliance for separating the packaging units, wherein the vertical conveyor installation has two parallel strap conveyors, defining, with conveying sides arranged so as to be opposed to each other and pertaining to circulating conveying straps, a conveying channel for conveying the portion units, which are enveloped by the film web, wherein the strap conveyors each have a multiplicity of support appliances arranged in the conveying direction for supporting the conveying straps along the conveying channel.

Apparatuses of the type mentioned at the beginning allow for arranging a vertical conveying device after a portioning appliance in the vertical sense, wherein, in the region of the vertical conveyor installation, as the portion units manufactured in the portioning appliance are being continuously conveyed, they are simultaneously enveloped in a film web and normally film edges of the film web are also sealed for realizing a film tube receiving the portion units. For finishing portion packages receiving individual portion units, the only thing then left is to partition the film tube at points corresponding to the portion units carried along in the same.

Normally, manufacturing packaging units with which the film envelope rests against the products realizing the respective portion unit as tightly as possible is desirable. Moreover, the operations of enveloping the portion units and conveying the portion units are desired to be performed in a fashion as gentle on the product as possible.

The invention is therefore based on the task of proposing an apparatus for manufacturing packaging units allowing for manufacturing a clinging product package while conveying the packaged products in a fashion that is gentle on the products.

This task is solved by the apparatus having the features of claim 1.

The apparatus in accordance with the invention has a vertical conveyor installation having support appliances, which have a pivoting lever which is borne at a framework of the strap conveyor and exposed to a pretensioning force with the help of an elastic element against the conveying direction, and which is provided, at its free lever end, with a contact appliance for resting against a rear side of the conveying straps in a supporting fashion.

Owing to the fact that the support appliance is realized as a pivoting lever pretensioned with the help of an elastic element, it is achieved that each support appliance individually acts on the product conveyed through the conveying channel. Hereby, an adaptation of the conveying sides of the conveying straps to the product contours in contact with the conveying straps becomes possible, peripheral differences in the conveying direction existing at the products themselves or also between successive products of a portion unit being compensated during said adaptation. The result is that the conveying straps and hence also the film envelope arranged between the conveying straps and the portion units tightly comes to rest against the contour of the products or portion units and that cavities can mostly be prevented from developing between the film envelope and the products or the portion units.

It is particularly advantageous if the contact appliance of the pivoting to lever has a contact roller borne at the lever end, such that undesired frictional effects can mostly be prevented between the contact appliance and the conveying straps, resulting in the contact appliance being able to better follow the contour of the product conveyed past the contact appliance in the conveying channel, which means that in particular no delays occur of the pivoting movements of the support appliance due to frictional effects between the contact appliance and the conveying strap.

If in each instance two contact rollers arranged in a common horizontal plane on opposite sides of the conveying channel form a contact roller pair having a left contact roller and a right contact roller, wherein the contact rollers define a front conveying gap in a front conveying channel cross-section, said gap being offset to the side relative to a rear conveying gap defined in a rear conveying channel cross-section, the support appliance does not only make it possible to adapt the conveying channel contour to the products and portion units conveyed, but also in particular to adapt the conveying channel contour in a transverse direction to the conveying direction, such that a conveying gap is defined in a rear conveying channel cross-section, being offset with respect to a conveying gap in a front conveying channel cross-section.

Such a transverse shift to the conveying direction can particularly simply be achieved if the contact rollers are realized as flanged rollers, having a first roller section having a diameter d1 and a second roller section having a diameter d2, wherein d₁ is smaller than d₂.

If, in addition, contact roller pairs arranged so as to be adjacent in the conveying direction have an alternating arrangement of the right and of the left contact roller, in such a manner that the conveying gap, both in a front conveying channel plane and in a rear conveying channel plane, in the transition from one pair of contact rollers to the adjacent pair of rollers, has an alternating lateral conveying gap shift, a particularly good adaptation of the conveying channel contour to products or portion units having, in the conveying direction, a diameter changing greatly can be achieved, as it is, for instance, the case with round disk-shaped products, when the disk-shaped product is arranged so as to be parallel to the conveying direction.

A particularly simple and reliable constructive design of the support appliance, which in addition makes it possible to design the support appliance in a particularly compact fashion, is achieved if the elastic element is realized as a swivel pin spring and is arranged on a swing shaft so as to be coaxial with respect to the longitudinal axis of the swing shaft of the pivoting lever.

If, for setting the conveying channel width, the distance between the frameworks of the strap conveyors is adjustable, products or portion units deviating to a large extent with respect to the product diameter or to the diameter of the portion unit can be conveyed with the same vertical conveyor installation, such that the spring path of the elastic element required for the function of the support appliances is not restricted by the product dimensions and that the advantageous characteristics of the support appliance can be utilized in the same manner with products or with portion units having a relatively small diameter and with products or portion units having a relatively large diameter. This means that, by adjusting the distance between the frameworks of the strap conveyors, the conveying channel width can receive a normal setting, such that the advantageous effects discussed hereinbefore, of the support appliances, can set in based on this normal setting.

In the following, preferred embodiments of the apparatus will be explained in more detail with the aid of the drawings.

In the figures:

FIG. 1 shows an apparatus for manufacturing packaging units, comprising a transport unit having a vertical conveyor installation and a film take-off appliance;

FIG. 2 shows the vertical conveyor installation of the transport unit on its own;

FIG. 3 shows the transport unit illustrated in FIG. 1 in an isometric illustration;

FIG. 4 shows an enlarged partial illustration of the vertical conveyor installation;

FIG. 5 shows a cross-sectional illustration of the vertical conveyor installation illustrated in FIG. 3 in accordance with the run of the line of intersection V-V;

FIG. 6 shows an individual illustration of a left support appliance;

FIG. 7 shows an individual illustration of a right support appliance;

FIG. 8 shows an isometric illustration corresponding to FIG. 3, of the vertical conveyor installation, with portion units, each of which comprises two products in a stack arrangement;

FIG. 9 shows a sectional illustration of the vertical conveyor installation illustrated in FIG. 8, in accordance with the run of the line of intersection IX-IX;

FIG. 10 shows vertical conveyor installation illustrated in FIG. 3, with portion units, which comprise two products arranged in a row;

FIG. 11 shows a sectional illustration of the vertical conveyor installation illustrated in FIG. 10, in accordance with the run of the line of intersection XI-XI.

FIG. 1 shows a packaging apparatus 10, which serves to manufacture packaging units not illustrated in more detail and comprising a portion unit 12, which is enveloped into a film web 11. The packaging apparatus 10, in the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, comprises a product conveying appliance 13, by means of which individual products 14 are conveyed to a portioning appliance 15, which, in the present case, has a circulating conveyor 16 having portion stops 18, 19, which are moved independently of each other in the conveying direction 17, and which are kinematically controlled in such a fashion that, in a transfer region between the product conveying appliance 13 and the portioning appliance 15, individual products 14, following one after another, are stacked on a front portion stop 18. Said front portion stop 18, during stacking, is moved forward in timed intervals in the conveying direction 17 of the circulating conveyor 16 until finally, after a defined stacking height has been attained, the rear portion stop 19 is advanced against the stacked portion unit 12, such that the portion unit 12 is received between the portion stops 18, 19 in a defined fashion.

For being transferred to a vertical conveyor installation 22 which is arranged below a transfer region 21, and which is only schematically illustrated in FIG. 1, the portion unit 12 passes a film web deflecting appliance 26, which has an inlet opening 28 arranged on a vertical enveloping axis 27, on the upper end of the film web deflecting appliance, and a film edge guide slot 29 on its lower end laterally offset with respect to the enveloping axis 27.

As FIG. 1 shows, the film web deflecting appliance 26 serves to divert the film web 11 from a horizontal conveying track portion 30 into a vertical conveying track portion 31, wherein a film envelope 24 of the portion unit 12 is simultaneously realized by means of molding shoulders 32, 33 of the film web deflecting appliance 26, which shoulders delimit the inlet opening 28, and by means of the film edge guide slot 29.

As FIG. 1 shows in a schematic illustration, a film take-off appliance 36 is arranged so as to be parallel to the vertical conveyor installation 22. Said installation has two strap conveyors 34, 35 (see also FIGS. 2 and 3) which receive the portion unit 12 together with the film envelope 24 for enveloping the portion unit 12 between themselves. The film take-off appliance 36 has two pairs 37, 38 of take-off rollers which are arranged one above the other in the conveying direction 17, and which realize one draw-in gap 39 (FIG. 2) in each instance, through which a film edge 40 is transported in the conveying direction 17.

The vertical conveyor installation 22, together with the film take-off appliance 36, forms a transport unit 41, which makes sure that the film envelope 24 is synchronously conveyed together with the portion units 12 received therein.

FIG. 2 shows the transport unit 41 in a detailed illustration, with the vertical conveyor installation 22 and the film take-off appliance 36 arranged so as to be parallel to the vertical conveyor installation 22. A base frame 42 embodied as a mounting plate by way of example in FIG. 2 serves to arrange the vertical conveyor installation 22 and the film take-off appliance 36 relative to each other, and also serves to connect the transport unit 41 to a machine frame not illustrated in more detail here and pertaining to the packaging apparatus 10.

For explaining the function and the construction of the vertical conveyor installation 22, reference initially is to be made to FIG. 3, which shows the vertical conveyor installation 22 on its own and before being linked to the base frame 42. The vertical conveyor installation 22 comprises, as it has already been remarked in the passages making reference to FIG. 1, two strap conveyors 34, 35 which are arranged so as to be parallel to each other, and each of which has one framework 43 as well as deflecting appliances 44, 45 arranged at the framework 43 for guiding strap arrangements 46, each of which, in the present case, comprises two conveying straps 47, 48 which are guided in a parallel fashion, and which are realized as toothed belts in the present case. The conveying straps 47, 48 are driven via a driving wheel 49 which is borne at the framework 43, and which, via a driving shaft 50, is connected to a drive motor 52 arranged at the end of a shaft housing 51.

For an exemplary design of a conveying channel setting appliance, which serves to set the distance b of conveying sides 61, 62 arranged so as to be opposed to each other and pertaining to the conveying straps 34, 35, the driving shafts 50 or the shaft housings 51 of the driving shafts 50, as it is illustrated in particular in FIG. 3, are received in regulating housings 54, which are arranged in a guide framework 55 on cross guides 56 and are therefore slidable on an infeed axis 23 running parallel to the base frame 42 (FIG. 2), in a transverse sense to driving axles 53 defined by the driving shafts 50 and pertaining to the strap conveyors 34, 35. An actuator 57 is linked to the guide framework 55, having a driving shaft 59 which is guided in a shaft housing 58, and which is driven by a drive motor 60 arranged at the end of the shaft housing 58. The driving shaft 59 acts, via a deflecting gear not illustrated in more detail here and arranged in the guide framework 55, on the actuating housings 54, which are synchronously advanced in opposite directions depending on the rotational direction of the driving shaft 59, such that the distance a₁ between the driving axles 53 of the strap conveyors 34, 35 is either amplified or diminished.

As FIG. 3 shows, by way of the distance b of the conveying sides 61, 62 pertaining to the strap conveyors 34, 35 and facing each other, the width b of a conveying channel 63 realized between the strap conveyors is defined. Portion units 12 realized, for instance, as a product stack here are conveyed in the conveying channel 63, wherein, in the present case, for reasons of a simplified illustration, the film envelope 24 was not to illustrated here. In any event, starting from the illustration in FIG. 3, it becomes clear that, by way of an adjustment in the distance a₁ between the driving axles 53 of the strap conveyors 34, 35, as a consequence of a corresponding actuation of the actuator 57, it is made possible in a simple manner to adapt the width b of the conveying channel 63 to the respective dimensions of the products 14 intended for being conveyed in the conveying channel 63.

As it is illustrated in FIG. 3, linking faces 64, 65 of the guide framework 55 are provided with connection means 66, 67, which serve to link the guide framework 55 of the vertical conveyor installation 22 to the base frame 42, in such a manner that—as it is illustrated in FIG. 2—the guide framework 55 is connected to a rear side 68 of the base frame 42 realized as a mounting plate here. Here, the regulating housings 54 having the shaft housings 51 received therein are arranged in window openings 69 of the base frame 42.

As shown by FIG. 2 in particular, the vertical conveyor installation 22, in the transport unit 41, is combined with the film take-off appliance 36, which has two pairs 37, 38 of take-off rollers in each instance, which form the draw-in gap 39, into which—as it is illustrated in FIG. 1—the film edge 40 is drawn in such that the film envelope 24 is conveyed in the conveying direction 17, synchronously to the vertical conveyance of the portion units 12 in the conveying channel 63. Each of the individual take-off rollers 70 of the film take-off appliance 36 is driven via a driving shaft 71, wherein the two driving shafts 71 of a take-off roller pair 37, 38 are driven by a common drive motor 72 via a power divider 73. Each of the driving shafts 71 is situated in a shaft housing 74, which has been guided through a window opening 75 in the base frame 42 and is connected to a regulating frame 76, at which the drive motor 72 and the power divider 73 is arranged and which can be advanced in a parallel fashion relative to the base frame 42.

As shown by FIG. 4 in particular, there are support appliances 100, 101 for guiding or supporting the conveying straps 47, 48, said appliances being arranged at the framework 43 like the deflecting appliances 44 and supporting the conveying straps 47, 48 in the region of the conveying channel 63. As FIG. 5 shows, the support appliances 100, 101 have pivoting levers 104, which are arranged on a swing shaft 102 in each instance and can be pivoted about a swivel axis 103, and which are provided with a contact appliance 105 at their free end, said contact appliances having contact rollers 107, 108 arranged on a roller axis 106.

FIG. 5 shows, in a fashion corresponding to the run of the line of intersection V-V, a contact roller pair 132 having two contact rollers 107, 108 arranged in a common horizontal plane 114. The contact rollers 107, 108 are realized as flanged rollers and have a ledge 109, which divides the contact rollers 107, 108 into a roller section 110 having a diameter d₁ and a roller section 111 having a diameter d₂. The contact rollers 107, 108, with their larger roller section 111 with respect to the diameter in each instance, rest against a rear side 112 of the conveying straps 47, 48. By contrast, a gap 113 is realized between the rear side 112 of the conveying straps 47, 48 and the roller section 110 of the contact rollers whose diameter is smaller. With the conveying sides 61, 62, the conveying straps 47, 48 rest against the periphery of the product 14 illustrated in FIG. 5, such that the conveying channel width b corresponds to the product diameter p. As it has already been mentioned hereinbefore, in the illustrations of the vertical conveyor installation 22, which show the products 14 in the conveying channel 63, it was chosen, for reasons of clarity, not to illustrate the film envelope 24, which is situated between the conveying sides 61, 62 of the conveying straps 47, 48 and the periphery of the product 14.

Owing to the roller sections 110, 111 provided with different diameters d₁, d₂, a front conveying gap 116 is realized between the contact rollers 107, 108 in a front conveying channel cross-section 115, said gap being offset with respect to a rear conveying gap 117, which is realized in a rear conveying channel cross-section 118.

In FIGS. 6 and 7, a support appliance 101 as well as a support appliance 100 are illustrated, which are realized in conformity, with the exception of the contact rollers 107, 108 designed differently and therefore, apart from that, have identical parts, such that, for explaining the construction of the support appliances 100, 101, hereinafter reference is only made to FIG. 6, illustrating support appliance 101. As FIG. 6 shows, the swing shaft 102 of support appliance 100 is provided with an elastic element realized as a swivel pin spring 119. The swivel pin spring 119 is situated coaxially on the swing shaft 102, wherein one swivel pin 120 is fixed at the swing shaft 102 and the other swivel pin 121 is supported at a stop 122, which is arranged at the framework 43 (FIG. 4) of the strap conveyor 34, 35. In the case of the contact roller 108 being loaded with a force F, a moment of load generated by the pivoting lever acts on the swivel pin spring 119, which is compressed as a consequence of an evasive movement about the swivel axis 103, such that a moment of support is generated, having a supporting force S counteracting force F.

As FIG. 4 shows, contact roller pairs 132 arranged so as to be adjacent in the conveying direction 17 have an alternating arrangement of the right and of the left contact rollers 107, 108, in such a manner that the front conveying gap 116 illustrated in FIG. 5 and realized between the roller sections 110 and 111 and the rear conveying gap 117, both in a front conveying channel plane 133, which is defined by the front conveying straps 47, and in a rear conveying channel plane 134, which is defined by the rear conveying straps 48, in the transition from one pair 132 of contact rollers to the adjacent pair 132 of contact rollers, have an alternating lateral conveying gap shift. Since each of the conveying straps is able to perform evasive movements into the gap 113, which is realized between the roller sections 110 having a smaller diameter d₁ and the rear sides of the conveying straps 47, 48, the conveying channel to contour can be adapted particularly well to the products 14 or to the portion units 12, superposed by the evasive movements of the support appliances 100, 101, said products or portion units having a diameter changing greatly in the conveying direction, as it is, for instance, the case with round disk-shaped products, when the disk-shaped product is arranged so as to be parallel to the conveying direction.

In FIGS. 8 and 9, the vertical conveyor installation 22 is illustrated with portion units 130 which are arranged in the conveying channel 63, and each of which has two products 14 arranged in a stack arrangement so as to be transverse to the conveying direction 17. Here, too, increased compliances of the conveying straps 47, 48 result, as it can be taken from FIG. 9 in particular, in the region of the gaps 113 realized between the rear sides 112 of the conveying straps 47, 48 and the roller sections 110 of the contact rollers 107, 108.

FIG. 10 shows the vertical conveyor installation 22 with portion units 131 which are arranged in the conveying channel 63, and each of which has two products 14 arranged in a row in the conveying direction 17. As it becomes clear from a combined view of FIGS. 10 and 11, the alternating arrangement in the conveying direction 17, of the support appliances 100, 101 provided with different contact rollers 107, 108, makes it possible that an increased compliance of the conveying straps 47, 48 is also realized with portion units 131, owing to the gaps 113 between the rear side 112 of the conveying straps 47, 48 and the roller sections 110 of the contact rollers 107, 108, such that a particularly good adaptation to the curve contour of the products 14 becomes possible. 

1. An apparatus for manufacturing packaging units in a tubular bag forming, filling and sealing machine, having a horizontal conveyor installation for transferring separated products to a portioning appliance for manufacturing portion units with a defined arrangement and number of products, said apparatus comprising: a vertical conveyor installation for conveying the portion units enveloped by a film web, wherein the vertical conveyor installation has two parallel strap conveyors including circulating conveying straps with conveying sides arranged so as to be opposed to each other, said conveying straps defining a conveying channel for conveying the portion units enveloped by the film web; a plurality of support appliances arranged in a conveying direction and supporting the conveying straps along the conveying channel; a pivoting lever borne at a framework of the strap conveyor and exposed to a pretensioning force against the conveying direction; and a contact appliance resting against a rear side of the conveying straps in a supporting fashion at a free lever end of the pivoting lever.
 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, in which the contact appliance of the pivoting lever has a contact roller borne at the lever end.
 3. The apparatus according to claim 2, in which in each instance, two contact rollers arranged in a common horizontal plane on opposite sides of the conveying channel form a contact roller pair having a left contact roller and a right contact roller, wherein the contact rollers define a front conveying gap in a front conveying channel cross-section, said gap being laterally offset relative to a rear conveying gap defined in a rear conveying channel cross-section.
 4. The apparatus according to claim 3, in which the contact rollers are flanged rollers, each flanged roller having a first roller section having a diameter d₁ and a second roller section having a diameter d₂, wherein d₁ is smaller than d₂.
 5. The apparatus according to claim 3, in which contact roller pairs arranged so as to be adjacent in the conveying direction have an alternating arrangement of the right and of the left contact roller, in such a manner that the conveying gap, both in a front conveying channel plane and in a rear conveying channel plane, in the transition from one pair of contact rollers to the adjacent pair of contact rollers, has an alternating lateral conveying gap shift.
 6. The apparatus according to claim 1, in which the pretensioning force is provided by a swivel pin spring arranged on a swing shaft so as to be coaxial with respect to a longitudinal axis of the swing shaft of the pivoting lever.
 7. The apparatus according to claim 1, in which, the distance between the frameworks of the strap conveyors is adjustable for setting the conveying channel width. 